Hold those other, glowing reviews you're bound to see with suspicion, as the latest entry in the Star Wars saga is a middling dud. Maybe if some people could step outside their fandom bubble for a minute... #link

Talk of #TheLastJedi being the ‘most emotional’ of the franchise (it’s not, at all) smacks of desperation to love a sub-par film#tweet

Good on 'em. Cyclists are road users as much as any other vehicle, no matter what bus, van and taxi drivers think https://t.co/JuR5jUTxSI#tweet

Ah, typical; can’t see Blade of the Immortal this week b/c work, and next week it’s not showing anywhere I can get to#tweet

I love how Amazon is just like, screw statutory rights: WE messed up your order but YOU have to jump through hoops to fix it#tweet

Very disappointed with @AmazonHelp sending me a book with an obviously damaged spine#tweet

From last year, about a year after we moved to Dundalk and my commute, whether by rail or bicycle along the canal, no longer took me past the least loved station in the Irish Rail network. I’ve been wondering about the security situation at a station that had no Leap card readers for months due to vandalism. (Oh, and there was that time some scumbag bricked a train window we were sitting next to. The area itself isn’t that rough, though.) #link

“More than outright lies, RT deals in moral equivalency. Its defenders don’t deny bias; they deny the possibility of objectivity. They say western media is equally biased. They liken RT to state broadcasters such as the BBC, France 24 and al Jazeera. They say other news channels have been sanctioned by Ofcom. It’s a triumph of cynicism: we’re all just as bad as each other.” The difference is, those other channels don’t make disinformation, in bad faith, their raison d'être. Speaking of bad faith, The Atlantic was recently moved to do an explainer on a concept — lying, basically — that’s pretty self-evident. #link

Looking forward to taking the Luas from Parnell St to Dundrum next week. Early Xmas present for me, seriously#tweet

Ah, it’s that time of year when people who haven’t been to the supermarket since last Xmas start clogging the aisles#tweet

Everyone going on about the old ILAC fountain but no one’s mentioned the glass lift#tweet

Adam Savage geeks out as he cuts a record at Jack White’s Third Man headquarters in Detroit. Whatever your opinion on Black, one can’t doubt he’s a genuine nerd about the craft of recorded music. #video

Another few weeks of genre-hopping, thanks to a free month of Shudder that I ended up letting lapse as I couldn’t find much of anything I wanted to watch. So it goes.

But it was also a month that included one of my favourite films of the year. Shame it bypassed cinemas and went straight to Netflix. The new straight to video? I sure hope not.

Obviously Netflix is better than that, but there is a clear sense that it serves serialised ‘prestige’ TV much better than first-run feature films. And I get the feeling even Netflix’s honchos recognise this, going by all the promos I’m seeing for Bright (which isn’t out till the end of this month).

Enlarged Heart Radio has been revived for the winter, with two shows this past month, numbers 20 and 21. I’ll probably have another one up before Xmas, provided my weekends aren’t too hectic.

I saw and reviewed Battle of the Sexes and Suburbicon for Thumped. I also attended screenings for three 2018 releases (or they are on this side of the Atlantic, anyway). My notes on those are just that at this stage, but expect my thoughts in the new year.

An interview with the other half of Studio Ghibli, about his most recent film, a beautiful and heartbreaking masterpiece which is definitely one of my favourites of the decade. And from a director who so matter-of-factly states: “I don’t really draw myself, I’m not an artist.” #link

Matt Webb on the return of his communal short fiction blog, and how it fits on the internet today: “It seems to me that, sometime in the last 17 years, the web forgot the simple pleasure of making, and appreciating what’s made, together.” (Cynical old me thinks that’s because ‘the web’ isn’t a thing anymore; it’s all smartphones and social media and clickbait and humanity’s worst tendencies laid bare. Sigh.) #link

This @CHIKARApro show that’s on right now, would I be able to watch it on Chikaratopia or elsewhere tomorrow?#tweet

I’ve only heard a fraction of either (I know, I know) but the new Code Orange is so much better than the new Converge#tweet

Awake since 5.30am. Couldn’t get back to sleep. Might as well get some work done, so#tweet

Not bothered with the new Glassjaw; I heard that song the other day and ehhh. But I didn't like Worship and Tribute when it came out, either#tweet

Guys, this was already very quickly debunked yesterday; see @RealDMitchell and @arobertwebb https://t.co/xzvAirYU1Q#tweet